"Etched in Bone": The Forensic Taphonomy of Undocumented Migration in the Sonoran Desert

Summary

Since 1998, the remains of over 2,500 undocumented migrants have been recovered along the Arizona-Mexico border. Many of these remains are unidentified due to the rapid rate of decomposition, the disarticulation and dispersal of skeletons by animals, and the tendency of many migrants to travel without identification. In this paper we examine the nexus of taphonomic and political processes and actors that influence the decomposition, recovery, and identification of migrant bodies as well as discuss the results of two seasons of forensic experiments. We argue that the environment and scavengers can rapidly destroy remains and that the current counts of migrant fatalities grossly underestimate the actual number of deaths. Moreover, we posit that the post-mortem treatment of migrant bodies tells us much about the brutality of current border enforcement strategies and the value (or lack thereof) that the American public attaches to the lives of the undocumented. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Crossing Borders and Erasing Boundaries: An Overview of the First Five Years of the Undocumented Migration Project   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 88